We went out snorkeling on a sailboat today. We had three captains, all very rastafarian. They took us out to three different snorkeling spots in Belize's coral reef nature preserve. It has been protected for the past 25 years or so and as such has prospered. It is the second largest barrier reef in the world, second to Australia's. After our first stop, where those unfamiliar to snorkeling got to practice, we headed out to play with some sharks. As we were sailing along, we came to a spot in the water, where dozens of very large fish started swimming around the boat. A couple of the captains dove in the water at which time we realized the fish were sharks. They were each about 6 feet long, and looked a little intimidating. We had reached "Sharkray alley." It wasn't too hard to figure where the name came from. We all jumped in the water after the guides and got to swim with and hold large sharks and sting rays. The shark's skin was almost like sandpaper, which the stingrays was very fishlike and slimy. Apparently, the sharks were nurse sharks, completely harmless. Sting rays are also harmless, unless provoked or surprised.
Our last site was a large outlet between the channel that separates the island from the coral and the open ocean. I know that doesn't make any sense, but picture island - deeper water - coral - open ocean, in that order. The outlet goes through the coral from the deeper water to the open ocean. As we swam around an saw all kinds of fish, including a grouper the size of a small car, we found an underwater cave about 20-25 feet down. After I saw the guide swim through, I wanted to follow. I imagine that anywhere in the states would strictly forbid a snorkeler to do such a feat, but I really wanted to. I was surprised when our guide came up asking if anybody was going to go through. He didn't even finish asking the question before I started diving down. It was a little scary, as I had to equalize the pressure in my nose three times during the decent, and then be careful once I reached the bottom to make sure I had enough air to make it through and then back to the surface, but I made it (I made that sound scarier than it really was, but it definitely wasn't for the weaker swimmer). The cave was teaming with schools of fish who all scattered at the sight of me.
Between the different snorkeling sites, we had a lot of time to lay out on the sailboat deck, reapply sunscreen, and shoot the bull with fellow travel mates. It was a lot of fun, just chilling out in the sun and I am glad that we have all these beach days at the end of our trip. While the beach days and not my favorite of the trip, they are a much needed brake from all the hiking and bus-riding.
I almost forgot to mention one of the coolest things about the trip today. During the sailing, the captains would stop at certain sites, dive into the water and bring up some conch and lobster. I thought they were catching dinner for themselves, only to watch them cut up the catch and throw it in some lime juice to later serve us as ceviche. It was incredible to go straight from the water, into the ceviche salsa, into our mouths. Definitely some of the best ceviche I have ever had (and Haley loved it too).
Dinner was another amazing seafood meal. We had a seafood buffet which included lobster kabobs, grilled lobster in the shell, red snapper, barracuda, and some other food which I cannot remember at this time. It was all incredible and only cost us $13US each. After dinner, Haley and I took a couple of people out to a dark corner of the island to do a little stargazing. Some drugged up local kept telling us to not follow the light in the sky, but the light in our hearts that would never go out. He then took out his mini-mag lite which he used as an example of the light that would not go out in the wind. We all got a good laugh out of it. Poor guy. Then after looking at the stars for a while, we started talking about the galaxies and size of the universe, and other intelligent life. We decided that things were getting too deep, so we quickly turned the conversation to Nintendo, beeping out our favorite theme music.
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